Some Velvet Morning

Four years ago, Fred left his then-mistress, Velvet. Now he suddenly appears at her doorstep with several suitcases and bags. She has long since put that chapter of her life behind her; nevertheless, she opens the door and lets him in. Thus begins a game of cat and mouse that is as strange as it is unsettling, a battle of the sexes waged with words, yet one that could erupt into physical violence at any moment. With »Some Velvet Morning«, Neil LaBute has crafted a classic chamber drama reminiscent of the plays of August Strindberg, in which the tension mounts with every exchange until an explosion seems inevitable. The intense performances by Alice Eve and Stanley Tucci exert an irresistible pull; their dialogue is so charged with the unspoken and the implied that it is almost dizzying. They draw the viewer ever deeper into a relationship that is clearly unhealthy and fueled by an undercurrent of hatred and contempt, until everything culminates in a bizarre final twist. Yet it is precisely this apparent happy ending that raises lingering questions that refuse to let go.